Why I Didn’t Allow PDP To Overrun Lagos In 2003 – Atiku

Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar yesterday revealed that if it were not for his personal relationship with the national leader of All Progressives Congress, (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) would have overrun and take over Lagos State from the defunct Alliance for Democracy, (AD).

Atiku, a frontline presidential aspirant of the PDP who said this yesterday when he visited the party secretariat in Lagos boasted that he has the political sagacity to take over the South-West and the North if the PDP gives him the opportunity to prove his political prowess.

He, however, debunked claim that President Muhammadu Buhari cannot lose election in the north, saying, whenever he contest election with any northerner, he always lost.

The former Vice President stated that if allowed to become PDP flag bearer, he would devolve power to states and make the President office less attractive because the states were very important to governance.

He noted that the importance of state in governance made him to ask former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, to handover responsibility to take back South- West states from AD to him ‘and he did’.

‘’When we came to power in 1999, the entire South West States was under the control of Alliance for Democracy, AD. When we were approaching the 2003 election, I told my boss, former President Olusegun Obasanjo to give me the authority to takeover South West from AD for the party.

He gave me the approval.

“My effort during that election resulted in our party taking over the states except Lagos state. And the reason was that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and I came a long way from Social Democratic Party, SDP. And he asked me to leave Lagos for him. I could easily have taken over Lagos. Today, we have lost South West again to the All Progressives Congress, APC.

“I want you to forgive me for leaving Lagos out of that arrangement. If I have that opportunity again, Lagos and other five states will return to PDP controlled states. I can tell you that and I know what I did to preserve Lagos.

“I want to appeal to Nigerians and members of PDP to give me that opportunity to return in order to correct the mistake I made 14 years ago,” Atiku added.